I had been running a Takamine TRI-AX pickup in my old Maton Colonial with very good results. The Takamine pickup is made by LR Baggs, and is in fact a rebranded M1 active in black with gold lettering rather than white like the Baggs unit. These M1's get great reviews and deservedly so, they give a fantastic sound that can really cut through, especially in the treble and mid frequencies. The only weak point I have found when running without a preamp, has been a mild quackyness and thinness in the bass response when compared to the other frequencies but overall this is one very nice acoustic pickup.
To address this issue I was in the market for a decent preamp, not that the taka lacked output, as mentioned it is in fact active and has it's own on board volume control. But I wanted the preamp for the EQ. Well I looked around and decided to get a K&K Dual Channel PRO from our host Bob Connor and while I was at it, I also ordered a couple of sets of K&K Pure Western Mini Bridgeplate Transducers. My only complaint is that I should have bought a few more sets of these great pickups.
Anyhow, without a preamp the K&K's have an incredible bass response, it is just so natural and the mids are excellent as well. However I did find that the trebles, high E and B are a little soft without a preamp. I keep mentioning the preamp because in both instances those weaknesses displayed in both pickups can be eliminated using the EQ.
Anyhow, I decided to fit the old Maton out with dual source. The K&K's come with a stereo or TRS socket as standard fettle and the Taka/M1 comes with a 3.5mm TRS male which plugs straight into the pickup itself. All that was needed was to switch the Taka/M1 to Passive mode, solder the two outputs from the bare end of the Taka/M1's cable to the ring and the shield wire to the earth on the TRS socket supplied with the K&K's and Bob's ya best mate
To keep both channels separate so I could then blend these two great pickups with the K&K Dual Channel PRO, and bias which ever I wanted more of in the mix, it was necessary to have a TRS or "Stereo" male to plug into the back of the guitar which I got from Dick's place. The cable soldered to this TRS male is shielded two core, with each core carrying a pickup signal and the shield acting as shared earth.
Just before the preamp, I made a split using half the copper shield and one of the conductors to run into two short length of shielded single core, or standard guitar cable with TS males soldered to the ends. I just grabbed an old guitar cable and cut the male ends off with a 300mm tail soldering each one to form the "Y" joint at the end of the shielded 2 core and secured everything with shrink wrap. You can buy cables like this ready made easily enough, but they were out of stock at the local and I could not wait so decided to make my own.
Anyhow, the reason I have taken the time to post this info is because the results are quite simply amazing, really, it is THAT freakin good. I HIGHLY recommend this system to anyone. The internal EQ of the Dual Channel PRO makes these two pickups so blendable they will work together just perfectly with any guitar and the external gain controls for the two channels allows you to then easily blend the output to your taste or style of music.
A BIG thumbs up from me and a Really Big thanks to Bob Connor for being such a fine fella and a great K&K dealer who offered all the advice I needed to make this system work so well.
Cheers
Kim
